Her choice to use her own face as a starting point for her art is not the result of narcissism but, as she explains to a friend in a letter, when one has little energy to work, it is convenient to paint self-portraits, because the model is always available.
In the self-portraits she analyses her physical decline and ageing in a way that resembles the work of Frida Kahlo. Unlike Kahlo, however, Helene Schjerfbeck's works do not contain references to her physical disability. They reflect not only the artist's external condition, but above all her state of mind and fear of death. In the way the artist analyses them one could glimpse the influence of psychoanalysis.